“The Seven Next Words of Christ: Have You Caught Any Fish?” John 21: 1-23

We’ve been traveling together through the texts that appear in the Gospels following Jesus’s resurrection. We have heard how Mary didn’t recognize Jesus at the empty tomb, mistaking him for the gardener. We have explored how the disciples walking along the road to Emmaus, actually told Jesus all about his own death, until they recognized him as he blessed and broke the bread around their dinner table. Is it surprising then, that in today’s scripture, the disciples did not recognize Jesus on the shoreline until he preformed a miracle?

The disciples were in overload mode. We’ve all been there - so overwhelmed by life that we don’t know where to turn. They had witnessed the death of their beloved teacher and friend. They were plagued by their own demons about abandoning him in his hour of need. They hid in fear - not knowing what was going to come in their lives. So they returned to the life they had before they knew Jesus - fishing. 

Simon Peter was the one who called them back to the boats - Thomas, Nathan, James and John and two other disciples. They went out, but caught nothing. Just after daybreak, they heard a voice calling to them from the shoreline - maybe they recognized a tinge of familiarity in it, maybe they didn’t. The voice asked them if they had caught any fish. Looking down at their empty nets, they acknowledged that they hadn’t caught anything all night. The voice instructed them to try the other side. 

Suddenly, their nets were filled with so many fish that they seemed to be busting at the seems as they were being pulled up onto the deck of the boat. John recognized him first, recognized him in the miracle that had just taken place (hadn’t Jesus helped them see his power before why they were fishing?). He recognized the Lord’s voice and his presence among them. When Simon Peter heard it was Jesus he jumped right into the sea, swimming to shore - always a man of action. 

Friends, I have heard a lot of talk about how the Church (with a capitol C) is in need of revival. How we need more people to come into our churches and hear about Jesus. And that is true. But what if, we need more people who are already here to be John’s and Peter’s? What if we need more of us, gathered here today, to recognize the Lord and respond with action. 

The beautiful thing about the Church is that we have both Johns and Peters amongst us. We have Nathan’s and Thomas’s and James’s and the other disciples as well. God has blessed us with a variety of gifts that are needed to be the church. But we have to let people use their gifts. We have to encourage one another to actually use our giftedness. We are all needed in order to respond to the call of Christ.

We need people who recognize the voice of Christ calling us to do something different. We need people who are willing to test out the waters by putting the nets on the other side of the boat. We need people of action. We need people to tend to those who become new members. We need people to rejoice in the harvest. Do you get the picture, friends? We are all needed.

A church cannot run with only three or four people living out of their giftedness. We cannot leave the bulk of the heavy lifting, to only a few. We all need to be listening to the voice of God and be willing to respond, even if what is being suggested seems odd. 

The question was posed in my last parish of what it would look like for five different churches to come together to serve Christ in our community. It seemed like a crazy idea - why would we come together when we each worship in different places on Sunday morning. But the crazy idea evolved as we listened to the call of Christ, and one Sunday all five churches did something even crazier - they hung signs on their door that said “The church has left the building” and they went out into the community they shared and they served. They cleaned. Sang. Cooked. Mended. Raked. They visited. Listened. Made cards. Delivered signs of encouragement to those who had to work on Sunday mornings. And when it was all said and done, many people in the church asked when can we do that again? When can we go out into the community and share the love and grace of Jesus Christ? Every single day, brothers and sisters. We just needed a little push to respond to what Christ was calling us to do to get there. 

The disciples could have refused to listen to Christ. They could continue to insist to keep the net on the side of the boat where they chose to put it. And aren’t there a lot of us, brothers and sisters, who do the same thing today? We keep trying to do things our own way, by our own power, instead of listening to Christ who is trying to steer us a different direction. When we stop listening to Christ, we stop being the Church. We’ve become a group of people where it is all about us instead of all about bringing honor and glory to God. 

When the disciples got to the shore, after they finished their breakfast of fish, Jesus looked Simon Peter in the eye and asked some hard questions. He asked “Do you love me more then these?” And with an affirmative reply, Jesus told him to feed his lambs. Again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Yes, Lord you know I do! Then tend my sheep. Again, “Do you love me?”

Peter was probably heartbroken by this point - thinking that he had fallen so far away that night that he denied Christ that Jesus doubts his loyalty and love. But really, Jesus was offering him a gift. The gift of redemption. The gift of laying down the shame he felt because of what had happened that night. The gift of restoration that comes with the command to feed my sheep.

Here’s the thing, brothers and sisters. We all have a little bit of Peter in us. The shame that comes from feeling like we haven’t done enough for the Lord. The shame that makes us feel like we could never be the people to be part of God’s Kingdom plan. The shame that shuts us down as people of God. But it is to Peter, and to us, that Christ comes and gives us the command to use our gifts to feed God’s sheep. To care after, not just those of us who are present here, but those who aren’t, and those who do not yet know the Lord. God liberates us, so we can serve Christ is ways beyond our wildest imaginations, if only we listen and respond.

And that, my friends, is what this passage boils down to us for us today, listening and responding. Recognizing that by the grace of God, broken people like you and I are called into ministry to serve Christ. Listening to the voice of Christ who is telling us to try something new, do something big, all for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Responding in such a way, that we devote our very lives to the message of the cross and the empty tomb. So, let us listen and respond, church, to what Christ is calling us to today, and always. Amen. 

“The Seven Next Words of Christ: Go Into the World” Matthew 28: 18-20 Mark 16: 15-18 Luke 24: 45-49

One of my favorite pieces of scripture is found in the verses we read today, which generally are referred to as the Great Commission - the instructions or duty that Christ gave us before he ascended back into heaven to sit at the right hand of God. 

The United Methodist Church believes in the Great Commission so much that we have made it into our mission statement, expressing our entire purpose for being a church “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

But there’s a problem with the Great Commission. We have made it optional in the church. We have started to believe that it is only some people’s responsibility in the church to go. Its the job of “full time vocational folks” like pastors and missionaries to “go”. But, my friends, in all of these statements Jesus is directing what he is saying to those who follow him. Everyone. No exceptions.

Let’s take a moment to put ourselves in the mindset of the early disciple. For the last three years they had traveled - a lot. They first went with Jesus wherever he would go, listening to him as he taught to the crowds and in homes. They watched as he brought healing. Then, after a period of time, he sent them out two by two to do as he did. To go into towns and villages and bring the good news of the Kingdom of God, in word and deed. Then after a period of time they would return to where Jesus was located. Their travels had been temporary, they would always come back to where they left Jesus.

Then Jesus died and the disciples were throw into a tailspin of sorts. Instead of going anywhere, they locked themselves behind closed doors for safety. They feared the outside world and the harm it could cause them, so they seemed to lose all sights of the missional journeys Jesus had sent them on when he walked on earth. 

But Jesus came back. For forty days after he was resurrected, he once again walked the earth with the disciples. However, now the time was approaching for him to leave their presence again so he is taking time to remind them what their purpose is - not to just gather amongst themselves behind closed doors, but to go. To go into the whole world - not just the areas of Judea and Galilee where they had previously ministered - and to bring to all who would listen the good news of the Kingdom of God. This was a broad call. It was a bold task. 

I think there are times in our lives when we all would prefer to gather behind closed doors. To just associate with folks we know are like minded in the faith. To come to church, where we can escape the pressure of the outside world, and meet with our friends in our safe cocoon. Let’s be honest, the cocoon feels nice at times! 

But just like those early disciples we are called to go. Commanded to go. In Matthew we hear Jesus saying that we are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Triune God and to teach them what Jesus taught. Sometimes, if we are honest, the broad and bold nature of what the disciples heard long ago, doesn’t propel us out so much as make us want to retreat even further into our cocoon.

Here’s the deal folks - some people are really called to go. To pack up their homes and families and move around the world to serve Jesus Christ. I’ve met some of them. When I attended college, the bulk of my friends were MK’s - missionary’s kids -  who told amazing stories of what their families did in the name of Jesus Christ in some places that I couldn’t even locate on a map. And that is wonderful!

And there are other people who are called to serve God in vocational ministry, as pastors and youth leaders. Musicians and support staff at churches. And that is wonderful to! But what I want to stress this morning is that it isn’t just the missionaries and those in vocational ministry that are told to “go” and share the love of Jesus Christ. That is all of us by virtue of our baptism. However, to “go” doesn’t mean going half way around the world. It may mean going out our front door and forming relationships with our neighbors who don’t know Christ. It may mean being open about our faith with colleagues. There are so many different ways that we are called to go.

The Barn a Group does religious statistical research. They found that 75 to 90 percent of all people who come to know Christ will do so through a friend or relative. Let that sink in. 7 to 9 out of 10 people who come to accept Jesus do so because of relationships with people who are right there, doing life with them. 

In the Gospel of Luke we hear Jesus saying that the disciples are witnesses. Witnesses of the death and resurrection of Christ. Witnesses of repentance and forgiveness of sins. Witnesses who are sent in the power and name of Jesus to share this life-changing news. We usually think of witnesses as ones who saw, but in this case it is also those who testify. Friends, we are called to testify to how Jesus changed our lives. To testify to how Jesus’s words touched our hearts. To testify to what salvation means to us, because God wants to offer that same salvation to the nations!

Years ago I offered a Bible study around evangelism, or how we share our faith, based off of Bill Hybel’s book Just a Walk Across the Room. The entire premise of the book is that we’ve made testifying harder then it should be. We get so caught up in our own fears in our head, that we make it hard for our legs to go when Jesus is calling us to share. But, friends, if we let our fears get in the way, then the people we encounter in our daily lives miss out on the message of God - the message that we are entrusted to share!

Brothers and sisters, where are you being called to go? Is it just outside of your front door? Are you being called to go into your town and neighborhoods to share the good news of Jesus Christ? If so, what is blocking you from going? If its fear, lets hand that over to God right now. If its worrying that people won’t respond - let’s remember that is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. If its thinking that you aren’t wise enough - lets look to God for wisdom. Because we are all called to go. But we do not go alone. Let us remember and hear anew the words of Jesus to his disciples and to us, “And remember that I am with you always, to the end of the age”. Amen. And Amen. 

The Seven Next Words of Christ: Peace Be With You John 20: 19-29

Doubt. At some point in our lives most of us wrestle with doubt, or this sense of uncertainty. I remember for me it came one day on a train platform in Melbourne, Australia. A dear friend and I had just spent most of the day exploring the city, eating good food, and talking about the Trinity. I remember sitting down on the train platform and asking my friend why God wasn’t answering my prayers. 

We had both attended a pretty conservative Christian college, where theology, or God-talk, seeped into our days, not just in our Bible classes, but just in every day conversation. While not something I ever grew up hearing about or believing, I had recently encountered peers who firmly believed that whenever God did not answer the prayers you prayed immediately, and in the way you wanted, it was because you had sin blocking your life and your connection with God.

Through study and prayer, I later would learn that just because God doesn’t give us everything we want when we want it, it does not mean that we have a poor relationship with God or one that is clogged with sin. But I remember in that moment, on that train platform, having serious doubts about who God is, about the power and place of prayer, and even about myself. Doubt creeps into our lives in some of the most unexpected places.

But, for all of that I was not known as Doubting Michelle, nor should I have been. Yet, Thomas, one of Jesus’s disciples, for his doubts has become known as doubting Thomas. Once every few years, pastors preach messages about how we should never have doubts or crisis’s of faith, and look to Thomas as the prime example of what a lack of faith looks like. 

This morning I’m not going to do that. The truth is that I believe that we all have a little bit of Thomas in us, a little bit of doubt. And that doubt actually can help us see how deep our faith runs. 

Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples for a moment. A little over a week ago they watched as Jesus was tortured and killed by the government and the religious establishment. They were now leader-less, and had returned to places of safety - behind locked doors, wondering how long it would be before the government and the religious establishment would come after them as well since they were followers of Jesus. 

They had heard rumors that Jesus was alive - from the women who went to the tomb. From the men on the road to Emmaus. But really that just made them more fearful. They were still in shock. Still deep in grief, as their world had been turned upside down. 

And then Jesus showed up. Jesus came, not knocking at the door, but directly into the room where they were hiding and said the strangest thing “Peace be with you”. How could they be at peace! Their hearts and minds were racked with “what ifs” and worst case scenarios and now the one that they thought was dead was standing amongst them. 

At first, we can assume that some of those other disciples had worries and doubts too, because we aren’t told that they rejoiced at the presence of Jesus until after he showed them his hands and his side. Then they rejoiced. Then they could fully celebrate Jesus with them. 

Before Jesus left their promise he gave them a gift - the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of a reminder that if they forgive the sins of others then their sins would be forgiven (what a hard challenge after what they had just experienced and seen - the need to now forgive those who killed their Master and Friend). And the gift of being breathed on. Breath that would remind them of God’s creating breath is Genesis, when God formed humans out of the dust of the earth and then breathed into them the very breath of life. This was the life-breath they were in need of. Breath that would remind them of the resurrecting breath of God as told by the prophet Ezekiel, that brought life to dry bones. They were in need of such resurrection.

The problem, however, was that one of the disciples was not present. For whatever reason, Thomas wasn’t in the room the day that Jesus showed up. Sure he was told about it second hand by all of his friends who kept saying that they had seen the Lord. But he wanted the experience. He wanted the life breath. He wanted the gifts and the promises. So he made this statement that has gotten him the label of doubting Thomas - “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later exactly that happens, Jesus shows up when Thomas is there and says the same thing, “Peace be with you.” Then Jesus offers Thomas exactly what he needs,  the proof of seeing and feeling the wounds in Jesus’s hands and side. The gift of being in the presence of the resurrected Jesus, a Jesus who speaks directly to the disciples fears, and offers them peace. 

We often see Jesus as chasticizing Thomas when he says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”, but what 

if this statement, too, was not a rebuke but a gift? The gift of the offer of peace. 

Here’s the truth friends, let’s place all of what we struggle with on the table. Sometimes, we have doubts. Sometimes we yearn for that peace that Jesus is describing, because we don’t always have it. In fact, true confessions, sometimes as the church we have screwed up Jesus’s peace. We have made it to look like the peace of the world - the peace of stability and materialism and prosperity. And sometimes we have made the peace into some distant promise that is only brought up at funerals instead of living into the reality of that peace in the presence. But the gift of this passage is tremendous. Int he words of Pastor Shane Stanford, it reminds us that, “Even our failures cannot prevent us from receiving God’s love”. 

This passage also reminds us that Jesus is caring and kind. He cared enough to give Thomas what he needed. So what do we need? That day on the train platform, I needed God to speak to me. And God did. God showed up. Just not in the way I had prayed for. Are we willing to have Jesus show up and say “peace be with you” in unexpected ways? 

What proof, brothers and sisters, do we need. We are now firmly in the season of Eastertide - a season when we celebrate the mystery of our faith. The mystery of Jesus who comes into our lives with these next words and radically loves us, even in the midst of our doubts and demands.

There is a little bit of Thomas in each of us, but that little but can also open us up to moments of God’s peace. Doubt can be one of the Devil’s greatest tools, but doubt can also help us see just how deep our faith really is. What do you need this day and how will Jesus unexpectedly provide? Amen. 

The Seven Next Words of Christ: What Are You So Concerned About Luke 24: 13-34

For years the United Methodist Church through the Upper Room Ministries has offered a three day retreat called Walk to Emmaus. I have both attended this walk as a participant and have served on the leadership team as an assistant spiritual director, as well as encouraged folks to attend. The mission of this retreat is to “offer an opportunity to meet Jesus in a new way as God’s grace and love is revealed to you.” 

I love that purpose statement for the Emmus experience because it so clearly captures the spirit of what happened on that road to Emmaus so long ago. When Jesus comes across two people along the road who were discussing what had happened over the last several days. They were in deep discussion of the death of this man called Jesus, the one who they had put their hope into as the political messiah - the one who could and overthrow Roman occupation. Then a man came near them and started to walk with them, but they were so lost in their conversation that they didn’t recognize him there. Finally he asked them what they were discussing and they told him the story of Jesus, assuming that he was from out of town and didn’t know what was going on.

If I had to describe this moment I would summarize it as awkward. Have you ever came across people who were talking and as you got closer you realized that they were talking about you? Even when they are saying good things it can be such an uncomfortable situation, yet that is exactly what Jesus walked into. Or have you ever had the experience of being deep in conversation, so deep that you seem to forget your surroundings, only to find that someone else has been standing next to you for a while, trying to be part of the conversation. That would have been the men.

Yet, for all of its awkwardness, Cleopas continues to tell this “stranger” about Jesus who was a mighty prophet in all he said and did, yet the chief priests handed him over to die. Its been three days since it took place, yet it seemed to be all people could think and talk about up to this point, including the women who said they had went and found an empty tomb and that Jesus was alive. 

Jesus then called them out for not knowing what it meant to truly be the Messiah. Could you imagine just sharing the most gut wrenching story with a stranger only to have them tell you how you missed the point? And the awkwardness continues. Yet, as they entered into the village and Jesus starts to veer off to part ways, the men invited him to stay. And as he responded to their hospitality and stayed, he took bread, blessed it and broke it, and they finally recognized Jesus!

Friends, these disciples of Jesus, followers of his, almost missed the point. They had become so blinded by their grief and expectations that they could hardly recognize who was right in front of them the entire time. In fact they were blinded several times in this story. First, they nearly missed the person joining them on the road because they were so engrossed in their own concerns. Have you been there, brothers and sisters? Have you become so engrossed in what is going on in your life that you miss what’s going on in the lives of others? 

  Sometimes as a pastor I think we miss the point of weekly worship gatherings. Recently I was at a youth retreat called “Recharge”, where the speaker made a great point. As Christians we move from one “recharging” experience to the next - whether it be a high moment in our faith life, or Sunday morning worship, or a conference. But really the point of our faith life, and especially Sunday morning worship experiences when we are walking with Christ is not to continually be needing to be recharged, but instead to care for one another. To be able to go to the person who sits next to us in the pew and ask how they are truly doing. Or to see if someone in the congregation is in need of prayer. Or to offer to babysit for the new mom or bring a meal to the widower. But all to often that isn’t what we use Sunday morning worship for - we don’t make it into a time to encourage our brothers and sisters in the faith, because we are so blinded by our own wants and needs.

Then the disciples became blind to what it means to be the Messiah. Some translations put it as “we thought he was the Messiah” or “we hoped he would have been the Messiah” or in our case “we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel”. They had let their own expectations get in the way of seeing that Jesus was the Messiah, just not the conquering, political King that people had expected. 

Friends, we let our own expectations get in the way of our faith walks all too often. First, we have expectations about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We want to pick and choose how our God should be. There is a saying that goes something like if your God hates who you hate and loves only who you love, it probably isn’t truly God, yet that is exactly how we can act from time to time. Instead of reading scripture to see who God truly is, we make God in our image. Especially looking for a God who can give us what we want, when we want it. We let what who we want God to be block us from seeing who God is.

We also can let our expectations of ourselves get in the way of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. In the gospel of John, as Jesus is preparing to die, we find him telling his disciples that they are going to experience difficulties and persecution. Friends, somehow we have tried to make our discipleship about what we want to receive and miss the point that following Jesus requires real sacrifice. We miss the point that discipleship changes us. In fact, its life changing, continually, because Jesus doesn’t let us settle for the expectations of ourselves but instead pushes us beyond our comfort zones for the sake of the Kingdom. 

Third, the disciples almost completely missed the fact the one that they had been traveling and talking with was in fact Jesus. They had been focusing on other things until Jesus stood before them and blessed and broke the bread for them to share. Haven’t we been there, brothers and sisters? Where we have been like animals with blinders on - only seeing a small part of the picture, thinking that Jesus has abandoned us or hasn’t been preset in the midst of our circumstances, only to have the blinders removed by the grace of God and we come to realize that Jesus was with us the whole time?

What about us friends? What have we been focusing on instead of Jesus? And how have our distractions almost made us miss what is right in front of us? For some it may be their grief. For others politics. For still others situations at work or at home. It wasn’t until the distractions were out of the way, that the disciples remembered how their hearts were warmed along the road.  Friends, we need to set our distractions aside so we can see Christ anew. We need to get out of our own way so that Christ can fill us and send us out. May God gives us ears to hear, eyes to see and hearts to respond so that we can go out and share the greatest story ever told - of how Christ met us along the road and changed our very lives. Amen.